Squid Game Money Lessons #431

I actually, personally I am unable to revealing the spoilers. Joel, on the other hand, as who I'm gonna have to keep my an eye on during this episode. So not only when I have tens of thousands of people virtually angry with me, but I would also have one person who's in the room with me very So yeah, we

will avoid any of those spoilers. While we're trying to our best to kind of say, hey, there's a lot of money lessons to be gleaned from the show, but just a warning, I do want to say that we are going to talk about the show, and so if you don't want to know about what the show is about at all, then you know, maybe it is worth it for you to hit pause, save this one for later.

Maybe until you've watched any of the episodes, or maybe you're halfway through and you want to finish it, come back after episode one at least, then sure, because we will we all will have to cover at least we're some of that. We're talking through mostly the episode of one, to be honest, but really we're not giving much more away than what you had had seen in like the

trailer for the show. Things like that. Oh and also I wanted to mention that you do not have to be a Squid Game fan in order to listen to this episode and learn something valuable from it when it comes to your personal finance. It certainly helps because some of the illustrations we're gonna give are connected to the show. But if you're one of the few folks who haven't yet seen anything about The Squid Game, we just wanted

you to know that it is not a prerequisite. That being said, I've watched the whole thing and I think it's a great show, and I recommend it if if you're okay with violence it does. That is true us amounts of violence Quentin Tarantino style violence, because it's not like which I will say, I sometimes get a little squeamish at to me, I still really enjoyed the show. I'm not super into violent movies or television shows, but

this one I thought was still worth watching. Yeah, we don't enjoy it for the gore, but it is a big part of the show. But aside from that, the show is so so good. I'm sure you're ready to watch the I really am, like I'm I'm so ready to dive into episode for all right, Well, before we get to the topic at hand, let's talk Matt real quickly.

I wanted to mention I recently had to figure out what I was gonna do with health insurance because, as everybody knows, I think most how the money listeners know, I left my day job earlier this year, and I because of just really good luck and fortune, I was on my previous employers healthcare through Cobra, and then the federal government made those Cobra healthcare plans free for a few months, which I was like, oh my gosh, that was just you know, money falling out of the sky

there that I did not expect. But now that is over, that's done with, and so I had to kind of take a look around and I looked at healthcare dot gov, trying to see, Okay, what would a health care plan here cost my family? It turns out not a whole lot of money. I mean, well, it depends on how you can find a lot of money. It was a lot of money, but it wasn't as bad as maybe I thought it might have been. But yeah, I know

you had had a great experience with meta share. You even wrote right an article about it on our website years ago, which you recently updated health sharing plan. Yeah, and so I looked into meta share too, and it turns out that's where my family and I went. We decided that that was the best rate with the best coverage.

And it's important to note that these health sharing ministries, these health sharing companies, um some of which are completely Christian based, some are based around other religions, some are very loosely or not at all based around anything to do with with faith. But mena Share for us seemed like it had just the best, uh the lowest premium amount with kind of the best history and coverage options. Uh.

So that's that's where we went. And now we've joined you and your family on on that meta share bandwagon. That's right, paying something like two fifty a month, which is incredibly affordable for a family our size, and honestly too, just at the ages that Kate and I are at, that you and Emily are at, it's just an incredibly affordable way to make sure that we are covered when

it comes to our health care. But again, and I've you know, wrote about this, but there are a few things about health sharing that not everybody is going to be on board with. You kind of have to weigh those pros and the cons and decide what's best for you. But we'll make sure to link to that article within our show notes. Yeah, and some like I said, they all have like different requirements and it's worth looking into the different health sharing companies to see which one might

fit best for your fan. But well, we'll link to an article that explains the way a few different ones work. I think is a really helpful explainer, and then we'll also linked to Matt's article about Meta Share in the show notes. But I just want to let people know that's where I'm at now, and uh, for our family, it's definitely gonna be a big money saver. On on the other side of the boat, though, Matt, we do have to have more money set aside in our savings

because you do. Yeah, we're we're basically covering full freight all of our healthcare costs up until the first twelve thousand dollars a year, which is which is a lot. And that's what we're on. I mean, that's how you say the most money self insuring to our every single month, exactly. All right, Let's go ahead and mention the beer that you and I are enjoying on this episode. You pick these up, and I'm actually surprised, and we'll talk about why at the end of the episode when we share

our thoughts on these beers. But we are enjoying Alpha Abstraction, which is a double I p A by Wild Leap Craft beer. But enough of that for now. Let's go ahead and get to the episode. Let's let's do it. Let's start talking about squid Game and the money lessons that you can learn from watching that show. And I was surprised because I've been hearing the buzz about about this show and I was like, well, I totally want

to check it out. I love dystopian style content, and yeah, it turns out this has really been a breakout show for Netflix. They recently announced that Squid Game is worth more than nine million dollars to their company, which I thought was really impressive. And apparently this series actually it costs Netflix less than one Dave Chappelle stand up special. Seriously, yeah, I found that hard to believe. That's like they paid Dave like twenty four million, and they paid like and

to get Squid Games like twenty one million. So obviously they have gotten their investment back and more. At this point in time, two thirds of all Netflix subscribers have actually watched Squid Game at this point too. And so yeah, while while Netflix doesn't release all of the streaming details for shows and movies that they create or partner with, it gives you a sense of just how big how gargantu in this show has been around the world since it was released in mid September. And like I said,

I personally really love the show, love dystopian stuff. But we're going to try and extrapolate some lessons that were just easily discernible. I remember thinking this Matt in episode one, like, oh my gosh, I feel like we have to talk about squid Game on the show now. There's just so

much stuff in here. That relates to personal finance. Again, we're gonna try to not dive too deep into the plot lines if you haven't seen it yet, but if you're a money nerd and you're paying close attention while watching the show, you'll notice that there were some really impactful money lessons that are work discussing. That's what Matt and are going to do today exactly. And again, most of the lessons we are going to discuss are mostly from episode one, so rest assured that we're not going

to spoil the entire series for you. But who knew that you'd be able to learn all the things that you should and shouldn't do from watching a Korean drama, well specifically actually the things that you shouldn't be doing with your money. But as we are recording this right now, Squid Game was the number one show in ninety four different countries. It's been, you know, like Joel, like you said, it's been Netflix's biggest hits ever by a long shot. But even still, we felt like it was lacking a

little bit. Let's be honest, you know, the only thing missing from Squid Game is too nerdy money dudes digging deep to get money lessons out of it. I'm sure Netflix is reaching out to us as we speak. Oh yeah, we've got to about the inc our own deal and who does this might be something that we do on a regular basis. That kind of depends on, you know, what the next streaming hit is, but it also depends to on how much is money a part of the

plot line. But for Squid Game in particular, we thought that there were just too many money red flags just popping up while we were watching this to not create an episode. I'm about it. So let's go ahead and dive in. Let's do it. Okay, So the first money lesson occurs really within the first few seconds of the first episode, right immediately, and it stuck out in my mind like so many of these do do. And uh,

it's the maximum spend money while you've got it. This mentality is pervasive in Squid Game, but specifically with the main character song Gi hunt and apologize in advance for pronunciation issues. Actually, oh, by the way, did you watch when you watched it, we never talked about this. Did you watch it with English subtitles or did you watch the English version the English subtitles? For sure? Okay, I

heard that. Actually make sure you have it on English subtitles and not the closed caption English, which is evidently a very poor translation. Okay, yeah, no, I I actually love foreign films and and so I'm I'm used to watching things with subtitles. My wife is like, na, I'm not going to do that. So I watched the Squid Game alone. Dude, I would even turn subtitles on with uh ted lasso sometimes because let's be honest that that

Midwestern accident was hard to understand. Yeah, obviously at times, obviously Roy Kent's accent, but there are times what I literally couldn't figure out what he was saying some of the books in the bar. I was like, that's true, that's true. But yeah, And like we said, the main character Songy Hunt, in fact, he actually literally says something along these lines that spend money while you've got it

during the first scene of the show. Basically he says, what's the point of saving money when he's never able to get ahead? And so instead of that, let's just enjoy enjoy the money. Now, live life to the fullest while you have that money. That that short lived period of time. And of course this is a huge character flaw with the Ma character that you're presented with at the very outset of the show. But this is also just a massive problem when it comes to how so

many people handled their finances today. There's this you know, yolo, you only live once element when it comes to that money approach, and it's bound to, as it does in this show, lead to some really awful consequences in the end. Yeah, certainly aligns with the line that we all know from the philosopher Dave Matthews, he'd drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Did you ever listen to Dave the day?

I totally was was into him? Oh yeah. But you know, I love though that this was the first lesson that we we get introduced to in the show, because it's often the first challenge that we encounter as individuals when we're faced with an issue with like limited resources or limited money. Right. Like I remember, specifically as a kid, my grandma buying my cousin and I both a pack of a gun at the grocery store. Like we each

got to pick out which flavor we wanted. Uh, and no joke, I'm pretty sure that I true through my entire pack that afternoon while my cousin Adam had his for the rest of the weekend. So like, I bring that up because we can all think back to purchases, maybe that we made as kids, or maybe while we were in college, even as adults, to be honest, that we regret. Right in the moment, it seemed like it

was the right choice for us to make. But when we're driven by our immediate appetites and we don't give much or any thought at all to the consequences, were bound to be disappointed. Okay, I always point back to my second Dreamcast purchase, and it was a It was a fine system. I bought it used from a friend and I was like, sweet, I'm getting a deal getting all the games at once, because buying each game was too expensive I could I couldn't afford it, and the

package deal. I got the package deal. But what I really wanted and what I really should have done, was saved up for the newer gaming system that all my other friends were playing, and I cheaped out. And that is, I will say, a consistent character flaw with me. I have been working to remedy for a long time. Thus

frugal or cheap exactly again. But yeah, another aspect of the first scene is the fact that there is an unhealthy parent child relationship, and this, uh, we we see starkly at the very beginning, and it definitely plays out poorly, not just in how the son and the mom interact, but when it comes to how they talk about money.

It's obvious again that the main character song he lives with his mom and he depends on her for a roof over his head, for money and for food, and but at the same time he's a very grown man and his over reliance on his mom to bring home the bacon on his behalf has actually created some real animosity between the two of them. And so, needless to say, it's easy for poor money habits to create unhealthy ways

of interacting with the people that you're closest to. We see this clearly, uh in the first few minutes of this show, and it's one of those things that for our listeners we want to make sure you're aware of, because it's really easy to let unhealthy money habits actually

hurt the relationships of the people that you're closest to. Yeah, and actually we just read west Moss's book in preparation for his interview next on money and happiness, so you can actually keep an eye out for that episode coming up on Monday. But in his research, he found that the happiest retirees live near their kids, not with them, and so if you live near your adult kids, you're likely going to be five times happier as a retiree.

And he found sharp declines in happiness during situations where the kids actually had to move back home and we're at least somewhat dependent on their parents. And then, you know, just like we talked with Liz Frasier last week, it's so incredibly important to work towards raising children who are financially savvy and you know, can set out on their own. We're just not going to be doing anyone in any

favors by coddling our kids. Uh And as children ourselves, we didn't make sure that we're being self sufficient to and not being overreliant on our parents. Not only does that keep us from our full potential, but it's going to decrease uh, their abilities to get ahead and be happy as well. Yes, yes, Matt, but this is really just kind of the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the money lessons that we can lean from the hit show, the wonderful show that is Squid Game.

And we have a lot more thoughts that we want to share. We'll get to those right after this break. Alrighty, we're back from the break. We're talking about the different money lessons that we can learn from Squid Game. And Joel, you mentioned that this wasn't a show that you could get Emily on board with. Somehow I was able to rope Kate in because she was there right when it flipped on, and the first scene was them eating and there's Korean food and obviously I'm well, I don't know

if it's obvious, I'm half Korean. Uh. And we eat a decent amount of cream food here in our house. Uh. And so Kate was like, oh, there's you know, there's Kim. She there's rice, and I'm like yeah, and that's what hooked her in. Well, that's what that's what allowed her to give it a chance. And of course it's not her favorite, but we haven't able to watch it together. But so so Joel, like, right before the break, we were talking about the you know, the unhealthy relationships there

between a character and his mom. Well, you know, we're talking about songs specifically, one of the one of the things that song does to cement the fact that things are broken between him and his mom, he steals money from her, which is, first of all, that's bad enough, you know, on its own, but then he uses that money to satisfy his gambling fix, just just to show exactly how rough that relationship has gotten. When you're stealing

money from your parents, that there's a lot of damage done. Yes, yeah, And so that's gonna be our next money lesson that we can learn from squid Game. Uh, and that is that gambling, well at least doing so regularly, isn't good. We actually talked about this recently because we're seeing a huge rise in online sports gambling. It seems fun and innocent and maybe drop twenty bucks on your favorite team or a specific player or even a play. Can't she even bet on specific plays? Now? I think I think

it has gotten to that point. Um, but the instant access to gambling apps on our phones makes it even more engaging than ever, and the downsides, we believe, can be pretty severe. It's best to stay away altogether, in particular if you have a hard time sitting boundaries, and it's not something that you struggled with in the past. Yeah,

Matt and I were not teetotalers by any stretch. I mean we especially when it comes to all we but we still believe, even though we drink a beer on every episode, that you should do it in extreme moderation because five beers is a whole lot different than one or two beers, right, and it affects you differently. And the same thing is true with gambling. Exactly what you said about gambling on the leg. That's that's what we're

specifically taking issue with here. It's the fact that it appears that the main character song he doesn't really have a job. He depends on gambling to try and help support his mom and himself. He's hoping that the next big win is gonna come along any seconds, just waiting for his big break. Yeah, and it's like, I know it's gonna come at some point. I know that the second horse in the third race is is gonna actually pull through like I thought they would. And it turns

out that that is usually almost always an illusion. And yeah, there's actually reference to a job that he has, but you actually never see him in the show working. It's not it doesn't seem like it's a part of his character, Like he's not you know, like just do like grinding it out, working hard for a page. That's just not

a part of who he is. He's just always looking for that that quick fix, the easy big score, and so yeah, he's looking for the quick shortcut, and you'd rather chance it then instead of putting the effort into earn a respectable living wage and showing up the work

on time. And so yeah, even when the time comes for him to buy someone a gift later in an episode, instead of going to the store and buying something like a normal human being, he ends up risking all of the money that he has in chance of winning this bigger gift. So it just kind of shows how gambling has taken him over as a human being. Really yeah,

you know. And interestingly, there's a point in that first episode two where Song he's playing this game and he's basically being trained to want to take on even more risk in the future. He gets a small taste of a prize so that he's willing to risk even more

down the road. And even though that pertains most directly to our gambling listen, here there seems to be a valuable takeaway when it comes to the small ways, the different sub subtle ways that are actually not so subtle ways that companies are able to kind of get their hooks in us so that we become even more beholden to either the products or the services that they sell. Like it makes it makes me think of like the

free samples at Costco. Right, Like you're walking along, you feel like you're pulling one over on them because you're just like, oh, I'm just hopping from station to station and they're you know, they're staying there and they're like, oh, you like the taste of those coin chips and that sausa. There's plenty more where that came from. Before you know what you're walking out with like a you know, a palette full of chips. I know. Yeah, You're like, little

do you know I just got a free lunch? And they're like no, no, no no, little do you know you just bought three bags of chips? Yeah? Little do you know? You're never going to end your costco membership? And that is how they make the bulk of their money. Yeah, it's funny, man, Like this specific instancy you're referring to that happens in episode one. It's one of those things that it didn't really register in the same way with me as it did with you. But when you pointed out,

I was like, oh, yeah, that's brilliant. He's kind of he is being trained. He's being groomed in a small way too. And and that's exactly what's happening when you're scrolling Instagram. Even the first time you see an ad for a company, you be like, okay, cool, whatever, But the fifth, sixth time, twelfth time, you're like, what's going on here, and you just at some point you respond

to that stimulus. And so I think it's really important for us to guard the things that are entering our our smartphones, to guard the things that are entering our brain because in so many ways, I feel like advertisers are trying to groom us for that big purchase too. Totally. Yeah. I mean, this is what they do, right, advertisers and marketers. They're professionals at getting us to buy their things. I mean, it even makes me think of something as innocuous as

uh today, free shipping. When that first came on the scene, and it was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing, Like free shipping and I get it in two days. And now as we've seen that, you know that window of time, that's something well it kind of depends now with like the shipping delays and whatnot. But we get used to certain standards and we have this we we almost make this unconscious decision that we can't live without

this thing anymore. Uh, and then we are willing to go through great lengths and pay high prices in order to maintain that certain level of living. So yeah, we felt that most directly to to the gambling lesson and how he was being groomed to continue to game. But but we certainly feel like you need to keep that in mind when it comes to what it is you purchase in our own consumption habits. So there's this new startup in New York City, matt that is doing grocery delivery.

And you might have thought that, like Instacart was doing a great job and they had a down pat although I don't really use the grocery delivery services, but this this company apparently is trying to do it in fifteen minutes or less. I think they're joker. And apparently, at least in Manhattan, they're they're being mostly successful right now. So it's one of those things where you're right, like

the window just keeps closing. What we want just continues to increase exponentially, and at some point you gotta cut it off. It's you know, what's next four minute grocery delivery. I mean, yeah, good good luck. And but yeah, another lesson really that we learned from watching squid Game was that's important to be generous even when you don't have much money. And there's this like interesting little tidbit where a character gives away some money to somebody else and

then later he asked for them money back. Shortly thereafter. Yeah, he goes racing back and he's like, wait a second, I gave you money, and actually I didn't. I couldn't do that. I need I need it back. And it's not that he didn't want to be generous. It seems like he did, but in this specific situation, something unexpected happened and then he was like left in an awkward scenario where he needed that cash. And so, yeah, the main takeaway here is that you don't have to be

rich in order to be generous. You can, and you you really should start putting money where your priorities are right now in terms of how you give some of it away. Sometimes the most generous people are the ones who have the least amount of money to give. I've experienced that, Matt time and time again that sometimes the people with the most money are the stingiest and they

don't give away a huge proportion of their income. And sometimes people with very little uh to give are willing to give you anything they have um And so, yeah, what we would say is be generous, don't go into debt being generous, but don't neglect philanthropy all together until you reach financial independence. I think that can be a

tendency sometimes of people who are hyper money conscious. There's something you just massively important about giving money away now, and it doesn't just benefit others, but it puts money in its proper place in your life too. I think that's that's one of the biggest check marks in the in the box of deciding to give at least a portion of the money that you make away to other

people and other organizations that you care about. Sure, yeah, and you know, there's a massive difference too, between feeling like that you're wealthy or or that you're rich and actually being wealthier rich, right uh. And in that moment, this character he felt like he was wealthy, and so he gave out of the you know, the abundance of that emotional high. But as we know, oftentimes our emotions can be deceptive and we might be making a decision

based on something that isn't completely grounded in reality. I'm going to say all those two because at the same time, I feel like this is tricky because there are times when you have to trust our You gotta trust your gut, right, like all things being equal, and you have to choose between two options. You know which one are you gonna go with? Those are times when someone would say, well,

you gotta kind of go with your gut, right. But especially when it comes to being generous, I think there are very few of us who have the problem of giving too much of our money away, right. Yeah. It's like, hey, I don't have enough money in savings because I was just so freaking generous last mom. Never heard anybody say

that ever, I mean literally ever in my life. And so that's why just creating a plan to give away just say a percentage of your income is what we would recommend because guess what, its scales with your income, and it removes the temptation to want to cling onto just all that is yours, right, And so I love the idea of being able to predetermine something ahead of time when you don't necessarily have your emotions maybe perhaps clouding your judgment, uh, and then basing your actions in

the future based on what you've previously decided. It's kind of like a budget. Yeah. A lot of people give in the moment because they're product to give, and they're like they either say, wait, I didn't actually have the money to do that, or they say that, well, that wasn't actually the cause I wanted to support, And we agree, like taking a step back, deciding how much you're going to give head of time, and then funneling that money in those directions, not just deciding in the moment, uh

is the best way to go. And it's okay to give spontaneously, but you want to make sure you budgeted for that too, And so all right. Another money lesson that we learned watching squid Game was that a lack of money doesn't equate to moral failure. And our society, Matt as a whole, we glorify money. We love to talk about the richest people in the world. There's a list is in the headlines a lot, Yeah Bezos, Elon Musk, and it's like, who's the kingpin now? And I get

tired of seeing those headlines. We we as a society, were pushed the glitz, the glamour, the celebrity, and money is a huge part of that. We either make the most successful among us into heroes or villains. Like Amazon on its way up. It's like, look at this company. It's the big upstart. It's gonna knock off Walmart. How cool is this. It's gonna it's super techy and it's gonna make all of our lives easier. And now it's like world's richest man going into space. He's the worst

image all over their bashion Prime delivery, right. But but like, really, when it comes down to it, I don't want to glorify or demonize Jeff Bezos, but having money, what we have to realize is that it doesn't make you a better or worse human being. There are certainly many characters in the show with severe moral flaws, but there are also some incredibly kind and generous characters in the show who ended up in dire financial circumstances that were had

nothing to do with making poor choices. And so you know, what we would say is that poverty, it's not a moral failure. It truly is just a lack of money in our society. That's not always the message that we get, but it's something that we think is incredibly true, and

it's yeah worth mentioning. And actually, there is this recent paper on poverty from the National Bureau of Economic Research, and it showed that access to better jobs or folks who are living in impoverished conditions that largely reduces poverty. So it's important to note that there are problems on a societal level that need to be addressed, and it's important for us to ask ourselves what kind of society

do we want to live in. There's no need to demonize anyone in particular in order to create meaningful fixes.

But at the same time, when someone like Warren Bufett talks about paying a smaller percentage of tax than his secretary, you know, I feel like it's worth considering how it is our tax system functions, and if it's doing what we wanted to, it's worth reconsidering how does our government is currently functioning and if it's doing a good job playing the roles that we wanted to when you zoom out, there's a lot on the societal level that we should

re examine as well. Yeah, man, I think if you were to take a poll, people on both sides of the aisle would say the current current tax system, the current way things are set up not ideal. You wouldn't have a lack of people that have problems with the current construction of things. But one of the most important elements of the show squid Game is debt. There's a whole lot of commentary, there's a whole lot that we can glean and talk about based on the role that

debt plays in the show. And so, yeah, we've got stuff that we want to talk about on that front and more right after this. All right, we're back from the break. We're talking about squid Game. And anybody who's already seen even a single episode of squid Game probably can't believe that we haven't talked about debt yet, because it is so fundamental and so crucial and so at

the center of how the storyline even exists. So let's get to that overarching lesson that we can all learn from squid Game, which is that debt can ruin your life. This message comes across loud and clear, uh, and the you know, the whole reason that folks have entered this dystopian world is because of the money trouble that they're in. And anyone who has ever been in copious amounts of debt in their own life knows that at a certain point that debt begins to cloud almost every interaction, every

choice that you make. It's proven that debt even makes you dumber as well as that's show that an influx of debt can drop your i Q by about twelve points, owing credit card companies, owing student loans, a car payments, not having enough money to cover just even all those monthly bills. That just becomes as much of a mental problem as it is a money one. Those stresses weigh

on us. And so it's not going to guarantee that you'll necessarily go down the squid Game path, but it's sure going to mess with your brain, and that's something that you want to make sure that you avoid. Fortunately, this is fictional, and you're right. I hope, I hope nobody ever goes down the actual squid Game path. But yeah, you're right, Matt, like, debt is an enormous burden for tens of millions of Americans, and living under that weight,

it can be brutal over time. And so, you know, one of the other things that made me think was that where you go to get debt matters. If we've talked in the past about the difference between good debt and bad debt, how getting a mortgage to buy a home or taking out a small amount of student loans, both of those are okay in our book. You don't want to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars to

get a philosophy degree from your state university. But yeah, in the in the show song, the main character in squid Game, he actually gets money from loan Sharks in order to fuel that gambling addiction that we spoke about earlier. He's hoping to strike it rich right in order to pay that loan off. And then he's like, you know what, I'll probably win enough to provide for my family. At the same time, I'll just do it this once. It's

gonna be all good. I doubt that any how, the money listeners are visiting loan Sharks, but uh, you know, where you hopefully not, but like, really, when it comes down to it, where you go to take on debt matters in a big way because the modern day loan sharks are actually pay day lenders. They're title loan companies, which you see commercials for. They charge exorbitant rates of

interest the rent to own places. They're just as bad saying like, come in here, get this TV for this many payments over this many years, and it turns out you pay three or four times as much for a television as you would if you were to go buy

cash at a local electronics store. And these companies prey on people who are in need, they often create much greater levels of initial distress in the end, and there are so many better paths to go down, including seeking help from local religious organizations or nonprofits where you live patient advocates. If medical debt is the problem that you're facing, or borrowing money from your local credit union. It's just important to note that where you go to get your

debt matters a whole lot. And even though we don't think you're gonna go to the worst possible place, there's still a sliding scale of good versus bad places to go When you are taking on debt, even for a good reason. Sure, I mean honestly, even like going with the credit card is going to be better than going to like a paida alone. And that's not something we would ever tell you to do. Like we're never gonna say, hey, get a credit card and pay interest on that. We

don't ever want you to do that. But compared to the rates that payday lenders are charging, I mean, the average interest rate is were to annualize that and compare it to an actual credit card. And so even though those lenders aren't like physically beating you up in order to get their money back, it does feel criminal that they're able to charge that much money compared to some of the other options that are out there. And so another less and we wanted to share from squid Games

that debt doesn't discriminate based on your income. And Okay, so let's talk We've been talking a lot about song, Uh, the main character. There's this other main character who works in investment banking. He's made a ton of money for years. Uh, and given his occupation, you would think that he would be well acquainted to maybe the surefire ways to grow his wealth over the years but instead he got into risky investment vehicles. He lost a lot of his money,

and he went into debts because he invested unwisely. Let's just say he definitely wasn't going on the low cost index fund route. Uh, he hadn't heard of Jack vocal I guess no doesn't. Well like he doesn't. He does exist and care of a not in this dystopian world. But there are some methods of investing that are much

more like gambling than folks want to admit. Uh. And just because you're putting money in the stock market, that doesn't make you an investor per se, because methods of speculation like day trading options, trading, uh, even trading in foreign currency, these are all incredibly risky. So just because you've got a great income, just because you make a lot of money, that doesn't mean that you can't fall

prey to pour money choices as well. Yeah, Matton, And one of the things we've seen, we've seen more and more statistics of people who are earning a hundred thousand dollars or more claiming that they're living paycheck to paycheck. And in fact, a recent survey found that sixty percent of millennials who make more than a hundred thousand dollars a year say that they wouldn't be able to pay

rent next month if they lost their job tomorrow. Like that's that's how dire their actual financial position is despite their income. And yet fort of Americans who make more than a hundred thousand dollars say that they similarly are living on the financial precipice and so high income definitely does not ensure good decision making or that you'll be able to easily avoid money problems. I think that's the misnomers. Sometimes it's like, well, if I make enough money than

financial problems growth the window. Not true. You still have to figure out and stick to the core tenants of personal finance no matter how big your paycheck gets. You can make insane amounts of money and still not have any savings to back you up if that stops on

a dime. And just like at the stats mat when it comes to former NFL players, a massive percentage of of these guys seventy eight percent of them to be specific, end up in severe financial trouble or they end up filing for bankruptcy within two years of their playing career being over. That is almost unfathomable for phrasing for any

of us to comprehend. When let's say, even if you only played in the league for two or three years, but you ended up making a million or two a year, it's like, that's more money than some people will see in their entire lives, and you made it in a really short period of time, and it's gone, it's gone completely. And so spending less than you make prioritizing savings, it requires discipline and the ability to say no to things that you want uninhibited spending and amassing debt. They don't

just stop because your income grows. That's definitely one of the lessons that you can learn from squid Game and from NFL in general, or retired NFL players at least. Yeah, and you know, lifestyle creep, that's also a big reason for these increased claims of not having enough money even when you're making big bucks. And we actually talked about

this in depth back in episode three seventy four. Lifestyle creep, uh, and just how it's it's I don't know, it's it's it's like it lurks in the back of our minds and we find it working its way into our spending habits. And this is also something that doesn't discriminate between those who earn you know, average or below average incomes versus those who earn a ton of money. This is a

real issue for people on all income levels. And when you look at the stats of how everything has grown in our society, it's clear that we've all become accustomed to just bigger and better, more square footage, bigger vehicles, Give me the hundred eight ounces, drink a shirt, hit me with all that sugar, and the Hunter TV two while you're at it, uh, and all that to say progress like like, it's not all bad that things are

getting better. I think there's an argument to me that get you know, things going big or might be a bad thing, but you know, the margin of progress is mostly a good thing. But it also becomes much easier to inflate our lifestyle just in a whole slew of ways.

And ultimately it's up to us to keep our expectations in check, maybe even lowering them sometimes when if if you realize that you're spending is not sustainable, right, if your income is not going to be able to keep up with your spending, that's something that you're going to have to actively, you know, change on your own. Otherwise you're gonna find yourself in debt. You need to work to stop moving those goalposts as to what it is

that's going to make you happy. Yeah, And the whole point of this show, Matt is we we really want to point people in the direction of choosing a few areas in their life where they consciously spend more money and then cutting back in almost every other area of their life so that they can enjoy the things that they love the most, put their money in the places where it's going to have the greatest r o I

craft Beer is the example for us. There are a couple other specific areas of each of our lives where we have chosen to spend more money in the here and now while we're saving and investing wealth for the future. And we think that that is a good way for you to move forward when it comes to your money. You don't have to put your budget on complete lockdown and enjoy nothing of value, and that that would be deprivation at its finest. And there's there are way too

many people in the personal finance world preaching that. We completely disagree with that mindset, but you can't have it all either, and so yeah, keeping lifestyle creep in check is is a really really important thing for us all to do. And all right, Matt, let's let's get to the last great lesson that we learned watching squid Game that applies to our money, and it's that there's there's really no quick way out of the mind that we

put ourselves in in the beginning. It looks like just playing a simple game could lead to maybe that the solving of all the money problems that the main character faces. It's uh, it's nice to think that there's a way to quickly remedy a problem that might have taken you five, ten, fifteen years to get yourself into massive levels of debt. Obviously, don't don't spring up or night. It's almost always a prolonged habit of buying things that you can't afford, slowly

and steadily. It is that lifestyle creep factor really that rears its ugly head and slowly but surely gets you into a debt problem that you can't quickly get your way out of. And in the same way that you found yourself in credit card debt, one purchase at a time over many years, well the path out of that debt is similarly slow, and so yeah, playing the lottery really only makes things worse. It's like, cool, I I

need money to pay off this debt. Why don't I just take all the extra cash I've got on hand and see if I can win the big one. Well, that is the exact wrong approach. It's crucial to make a plan to get out of that debt hole and then to stick to it, and so yeah, it's just important to note that there's no quick solution, there's no easy fix. It takes time, intentionality, and creating an actual plan to help get you to the final goal you

want to reach. Yeah, and honestly, if there is an easy button that's available to you, it's probably earth being reminded of the fact that it's probably too good to be true, right, It's most likely going to overpromise and underdeliver. And that's something that's important for us to keep in mind. And so, like you said, it's really important for us to remember too that money isn't going to solve all

of our problems. Even if all of your debts were, say, going to be paid off tomorrow, you're still gonna have real issues in your life, right if you're currently in debt. Uh, it's easy to think that more money is going to be the solution. Like we specifically saw that with Song and the you know, back in the first episode, he gets a lot of money, but since he didn't address his underlying issues of gambling, he continued down the same path. Uh,

and he persisted in making poor life decisions. And even if you're working really hard to legitimately earn your income, if you have spending issues, you know, at the at your core, more money won't solve your problems. And so this is just a final reminder that money can't and it won't fix everything in your life. And it's crucial to have limits when it comes to what you're willing to do for money as well, you know, specifically saying

no to money that is a superpower worth developing. We need to make sure that we're not just jumping at

every possible chance there is to make more money. We I mean, we kind of talked about this somewhat recently when we talked about just different gig jobs out there and how if you start to enter that world, you see all these different things that you could potentially do, and it's you know, almost we kind of likened it to a buffet of options to you, and you're like, oh my gosh, look at all the different things that I could do to make an extra buck. But what

do you want your life to look like? Make sure that you're focusing on the things that truly matter, uh, and the things that aren't necessarily going to give you an immediate fix, but instead to focus on the more long term solutions that's going to bring about, in this case, the most financial health for you. Okay, so there it is. I'm sure other listeners who paid really close attention might have found other great takeaways when it comes to our

money from watching squid Game, but these were ours. And so, yeah, debt is definitely a big part of it. Avoiding debt and just realizing that debt is one of those things that it really can hunt anybody's life, no matter where you're at in the income spectrum. And so, yeah, if you had an awesome money take away from a squid game, share it with us via email. We'd love to kind of hear what you thought, or yeah, maybe share it

in the Facebook group as well. And so, Matt, let's get back to the beer we had on this episode. This was Alpha Abstraction Volume eighteen eighteen, right, and so yeah, what were your thoughts on this beer? And so it's volume eighteen, and I mean back in the day, we had volume like three or four. So this is kind of a series that we have followed for a while now.

And so at the beginning of the episode, I said, I was surprised that you picked this one up for us, because this tends to be a sweeter double I p A. And normally that's not the direction that you like to go in with your I p A s. Right, Yeah, that's true. And I was like, well, it's been a while, I've changed and taste. Actually haven't had it since Volume eleven.

Let's get this a go, see see what it's tasting like the Volume ten that was the black can that we had on the show, remember maybe a year ago. I remember baseball stats like and beer cans typically pretty well, but I don't remember that. But I will say that this, uh, this beer, honestly, it tastes really similar to It tastes exactly like what I remember from the last time I had it. And You're right, it is really sweet. It has almost like some fruity pebble notes along with just

that like super super sweet hot concentrate. And I mean, and I don't mean that in like a vicious way, Like it's not overly, it doesn't taste like cereal, but it does have like just those light fruity tones going on, and that's not a bad thing. But it's just not my jam this, uh So I was always wanted to give it another chance. This brewery is about an hour south of town, and a lot of people really like

this beer. It's just not one of my favorites. Yeah, and it's worth noting too that this is uh not a double dry hot I p A or a double hazy IPA. This is a double classic I p A, which means we poured it poured a kind of golden, kind of golden amber color going on, and it was

perfectly clear, nice and filtered. For all the traditional beer drinkers out there who don't like stuff floating in their beer, which is often the times the case that when you and I drink a beer, I mean, regardless if it's a fruited sour or an adjunct stouts or a hazy I p A, a a lot of times there's stuff still with you know in the beer to give it all that flavor, which I'm totally cool with, which might gross

some people out out there. But for all of the super beer nerds, you know what we're talking about, this one didn't have that though, and so I feel like this was a nice introduction to maybe some of the bigger, more flavorful beers out there. I feel like it had like that sweet like you said, like a sweet resin uh core to this beer. I enjoyed it. I I'd give it like a four and a quarter on Untapped even though it's been I feel like it's been a couple of years maybe since I've been on untapped uh

and rated in my beers. But Jill, that's gonna be it for this episode. Listeners. You can find our showed notes. Any references we made during this episode you can find up on our website at how to money dot com no doubt, and Yeah, if you haven't watched squid Game yet and it still sounds completely uninteresting to you, well then keep avoiding it. But if you're like, oh, now, I want to go back and see if I could see all the places where money nersery intersects with dystopian

Korean film filmmaking. Then check it out and we hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you did and you're not already a subscriber, or make sure you mash that subscribe button so that you do not miss any future episodes from Joel and I. Buddy, that's gonna be it for this episode until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,